Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Herman Russell Branson (August 14, 1914 – June 7, 1995) was an African American physicist, best known for his research on the alpha helix protein structure. He was also the president of two colleges.
Branson received his B.S. from Virginia State College in 1936, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cincinnati, under the direction of Boris Padowski, in 1939. After a stint at Dillard University, he joined Howard University in 1941 as an assistant professor of physics and chemistry. He remained at Howard for 27 years, achieving increasingly important positions, eventually becoming head of the physics department, director of a program in experimental science and mathematics, and working on the Office of Naval Research and Atomic Energy Commission Projects in Physics at Howard University.
In 1948, Branson took a leave and spent time at the California Institute of Technology, in the laboratory of the chemist Linus Pauling. There he was assigned work on the structure of proteins, specifically to use his mathematical abilities to determine possible helical structures that would fit both the available x-ray crystallography data and a set of chemical restrictions outlined by Pauling. After some months of work, Branson handed in a report narrowing the possible structures to two helixes, a tighter coil Pauling termed "alpha," and a looser helix called "gamma." Branson then returned to Howard to work on other projects.
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Branson went on to a significant career, eventually serving as president of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, from 1968–1970, and then president of Lincoln University until his retirement in 1985. He was active in increasing federal funding for higher education, and helped found the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education in 1969.
In 1984 Branson wrote Pauling biographers Victor and Mildred Goertzel implying that his contribution to the alpha helix had been greater than the final paper indicated. "I took my work to Pauling who told me that he thought they [the proposed alpha and gamma helixes] were too tight, that he thought that a protein molecule should have a much larger radius so that water molecules could fit down inside and cause the protein to swell," he wrote. "I went back and worked unsuccessfully to find such a structure." When he received Pauling’s note with the draft manuscript, Branson wrote, "I interpreted this letter as establishing that the alpha and gamma in my paper were correct and that the subsequent work done was cleaning up or verifying. The differences were nil."
Branson was co-inventor of the alpha helix and perhaps deserved a share of the Nobel prize. As the story goes somehow Linus Pauling got Branson excluded from the prize [new Yorker mag]....Read More
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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More tears in Haiti. NYT: Election Violence Flares in Haiti
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Protesters torched the headquarters of the government-backed presidential candidate, burned tires and blocked streets with rubble from earthquake-destroyed buildings on Wednesday morning, hours after the release of preliminary election results set off violence and new questions about vote rigging.
This normally traffic-clogged city was almost empty of cars except for Haitian police patrols, the airport was shut down after American Airlines canceled flights in and out of the country and an eerie quiet reigned, interrupted by the chanting from sporadic marches and by sirens wailing.
By late morning, in the hilly suburb of Pétionville, hundreds demonstrators were massing to march toward the electoral board offices, which they threatened to burn down, Haitian radio reported. United Nations peacekeeping troops, guarding the offices, were shooting in the air to keep the protesters away, the radio said.
Nine days after a turbulent election marred by disorganization, voter intimidation and fraud, the country’s electoral board announced late Tuesday night that Mirlande Manigat, a former Haitian first lady, and Jude Célestin, the governing party’s candidate, had won the first round of voting.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
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Nigeria has filed charges against former US Vice-President Dick Cheney over a scandal involving a former subsidiary of Halliburton energy firm. BBC: Nigeria files bribery charges against Dick Cheney
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The case, brought by the country's anti-corruption agency, centres on engineering firm KBR, which admitted bribing officials.
Mr Cheney's lawyer has called the allegations "entirely baseless".
Mr Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive before becoming vice-president to George W Bush in 2001.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had filed 16 charges against Mr Cheney, Halliburton Chief Executive David Lesar, and two other executives.
It also filed charges against Halliburton as a company and four associated businesses.
KBR last year pleaded guilty to paying $180m (£115m) in bribes to Nigerian officials prior to 2007, when it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. The firm agreed to pay $579m (£372m) in fines related to the case in the US.
But Nigeria, along with France and Switzerland, has conducted its own investigations into the case.
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Maxine Waters called on the Federal Reserve to help black banks too. Loop21: $9 Trillion and Not a Nickel Loaned to a Black Owned Bank
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On Wednesday of last week, the Federal Reserve released data detailing all 21,000 of its emergency transactions to counter the effects of a global financial meltdown. According to its own figures, close to $9 trillion dollars was loaned out at zero percent interest.
The list of borrowers from the Federal Reserve included all of the big banks including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide, who are now either out of business or have been acquired by larger entities. Even foreign banks such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas got to borrow a little change from the Fed but out of the 21,000 transactions listed, there wasn’t a single black owned bank on that list.
This could be a good or bad thing.
In 1977 the U.S. congress passed its Community Reinvestment Act, which requires that all banks are required to lend in neighborhoods where they take deposits. This kept many large banks from moving into low income neighborhoods. In 2003 this Act was revisited, when a report commissioned by the Federal Reserve found out that less than 30 percent of all home purchase loans were subject to intense review under the CRA.
Therefore in 2005, the Office of Thrift Supervision implanted new rules that extended the reach of banks with more than $1 billion in assets. Under these new rules, these large banks could take deposits in these neighborhoods as long as they could show that they "offered access" to their investment services in these neighborhoods. This afforded these large banks the opportunity to expand further into these neighborhoods where they were once afraid that their operations would hurt their financial performance.
Ironically, this is also around the same time that the housing market and subprime lending was beginning to take off. Minority owned banks found themselves not only competing for custumers and deposits but also to maintain their bottom line as assets were fleeing to larger banks.
In an effort to secure loans from the U.S. Treasury, OneUnited Bank, the third largest black owned bank in the country opened up its loan portfolio. In 2006, this black banking conglomerate had made more the $182 million in loans. In 2007, their lending dropped to $16 million. By 2008, they had approved just $8 million in loans. Because of this they were issued a cease and desist letter from the government under the CRA.
Yes, the same OneUnited is the bank at the center of the ethics controversy, centered on Maxine Waters. OneUnited Bank is the name for the merger of Founders National Bank in Los Angeles, Family Savings Bank in Los Angeles, Boston Bank of commerce in Boston and People’s National Bank of Commerce in Miami. Most of this money was lent to churches and developers and not residents.
Maybe because they could not risk the substantial loss in assets, these banks did not participate in subprime lending. In fact, in Miami were the housing market was hit hardest, OneUnited was cited for "substantial noncompliance" with the CRA.
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This is a serious outrage on many levels. San Fransisco Chronicle: Dropout rate for Calif. black students hits 37%
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More than a third of California's African American public high school students dropped out before graduation day, a startling number and one that's on the rise, according to 2009 data released Tuesday.
The 37 percent African American dropout rate, up three percentage points from the prior year, was far above that of any other ethnic subgroup. Hispanic students had the second highest rate at 27 percent.
Locally, San Francisco cautiously celebrated a 9 percent overall dropout rate, a stark contrast to Oakland's 40 percent, numbers still under review for accuracy.
The statewide statistics highlight a pervasive achievement gap in test scores and graduation rates that persists despite focused efforts to boost the academic performance of black, Hispanic and low-income students, state education officials said.
Overall, 22 percent of state students dropped out of high school, according to the new data, up from 19 percent the year before.
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Major changes in Chicago. Chicago Sun-Times: Last Cabrini-Green residents pack up, move out
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For the last Cabrini-Green high-rise standing, the countdown to the end of an era began Oct. 15, when 27 families received 90-day notices.
But for the Ricks family it began 10 days ago, when the Chicago Housing Authority showed up with trucks to begin moving out the remaining families, saying the 1230 Burling building’s occupancy had now gotten too low for safety.
On Thursday, the last tenants of what was once the city’s most notorious public housing project left the building.
"We talked about all the memories we had over here," Rose Ricks, 17, said of the family’s last night in their home. As movers loaded up the Ricks’ possessions in a furniture truck, she added, "Because my room’s really empty I let my nieces and nephews jump on my pogo stick, we played jump rope, hula hoop and played music so loud because we had no neighbors.
"I’ve been here basically my whole life. ... It’s sad."
Around 11 a.m. the family emerged from the heavily-guarded building to a round of applause from a handful of other former Cabrini residents.
They face an uncertain future at their new home on the South Side, they said.
"I don’t feel good,’’ Rose’s mother Annie Ricks, 54, said Wednesday while packing up her belongings. "They’re forcing me to move somewhere I don’t know anything about," said Ricks, who lived in a five-bedroom unit with Rose, three sons and a grandson.
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The recession and hair trends mean increased competition and less business for black-owned hair salons. The Root: Tough Times at Black Women's Salons
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You would certainly expect black and white women to shop at the same stores, luxuriate in the same spas, even frequent the same makeup counters. And more than five decades after Rosa Parks held on to her bus seat, they do.
But there was one beauty barrier that was never breached: hair salons.
All things being equal, women's hair was not.
Because no one, according to the conventional wisdom, could style a black woman's hair except another African American, salons were the only institutions more segregated than church on Sunday mornings. It's a well-known scene: Black women gather at their beauty parlors for everything from straightening to socializing.
But this last bastion of separation may be going the way of the hot comb. Pushed by a recession-driven shakeout and shifting trends in hair care, the walls are starting to come down.
Walk into Saks Fifth Avenue's salon in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. -- historically home to a mostly white, upper-class clientele -- and you will see black and white clients getting their hair done by white and black stylists.
There's also an increasing number of black stylists at typically white Center City Philadelphia salons, including Bubbles and Adolf Biecker. And black-owned beauty salons are hiring a more diverse group of stylists.
Of the six stylists at the year-old Ends Hair Design and Day Spa in Northern Liberties, Pa., there are three African Americans, one Asian, one white stylist and one Latina.
Brandy Davila, who is an African American and an owner of the multicultural Salon Tenshi in North Philadelphia, opens her doors to all clients and stylists.
"And I'm finding it's a learning experience for everyone," Davila said. "White clients get to see what goes on with African-American hair, and my black clients see that white people's hair isn't as easy to deal with as we think."
This new take on diversity is no small thing. Black women have gone to self-segregated salons not just to get their hair coiffed but to feel positive -- and safe -- during their experience. (There's a reason that the latest YouTube sensation of a brown Sesame Street puppet singing "I Love My Hair" has legions of black women talking.)
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[] President Obama & Justice for Black Farmers by vmm918
[] AAreports satiric week on review 12/05/10 by glciii
[] Idaho State University Africa Night 2011 by The Book Bear
[] Ancient Africa: The Mali Empire by Ojibwa
[] Guardian: Shell's Grip on Nigerian State Revealed by ukit
[] "Miami Rice": The Business of Disaster in Haiti by Bev Bell
[] Haiti: Justice, Not Charity by allie123
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
In the economic warfare that has been raging for decades, the divisions of the economic classes have widened. The rich, though a small number, hold the majority of the wealth, the middle class is shrinking, the poor are increasing in numbers and are being kicked in the gut for it.
But the Holidays are upon us and the bright twinkling lights on the 100 foot Douglas Fir in the town square draws us to the business district. Canned Holiday Music wafts from the warm interiors of department stores as shoppers look for that perfect gift. Not last year's model, of course; and certainly not some nostalgic, lead-painted toy from their youth. No, what everyone wants, what everyone seems to need, are some...
Brand New Products
A vigilant gun that always picks out
The right target-even if it’s you-
No matter who you’re aiming at.
A computer that listens and blows you,
As you blow it, to your favorite tune.
Meat that cleans your teeth
As you’re masticating it.
A truck so awesome, only the President
Of the United States of America’s allowed
To careen in it, to his own beat.
A dictionary with positive adjectives only.
A dictionary with no wet verbs.
A dictionary with negotiable definitions.
A dictionary that defines words by their antonyms.
All the greatest hits from the last millennium
Performed live, on stage, on the inside
Of your state of the art, acoustically-enhanced skull.
A complete set of nude photos
Of you, taken by you and sold
Back to you-at a discount.
A sex doll with a mirror for a face.
A sex doll with a Ph.D.
A sex doll with adjustable skin tone.
A sensitive sex doll that just wants
To be friends-a Platonic sex doll.
Rain water in a bottle, sunshine in a box
And ambience sounds from a bus stop
Down the street, recorded on a CD.
A 24-hour video of what you did yesterday.
A 24-hour video of what you’ll do tomorrow.
A super realistic photo of what’s outside
Your window, pasted to your window.
A baseball game that never ends,
To be played simultaneously with
A football game that never ends.
Cluster bombs that scatter copies of Leaves of Grass
Over a thousand mile radius, for a thousand years.
Landmines made with dough,
Topped with mozzarella and all
Your favorite toppings.
An airplane that never lands.
And, finally, your favorite fairy tale
Painted on your new plastic limbs.
Linh Dinh